#discovery s1e2

[biblioflyer]

Starfleet Doesn’t Shoot First: The Case Against Militarism (Discovery rewatch)

Standing their ground and telling the Klingons “no, you move” got a LOT of people killed.

This is not going to win me many accolades among those who gripe about Starfleet never taking its defensive duties seriously, but I think the meta is very clear here. T’Kuvma was hoping he could create an interstellar incident and he seems to have been counting on a “just so” Starfleet response. One that wasn’t so timid as to make his claims that the Federation represented an existential threat seem silly, but also not so robust that it satisfied the conditions for a “Vulcan Hello” - a forceful response that makes the Federation seem like it would require too much effort. 

Reading between the lines, its law of the jungle logic. Predators need a certain amount of calories to be worth the effort expended in hunting, but the greater the odds of sustaining a debilitating injury the more reticent a predator will be. If we scale this metaphor up to international relations, the difference between a colony and a regional power is whether or not a great power can regime change a state without breaking a sweat or if the cost in blood and treasure would be unacceptable.

Given how events play out in the Battle of the Binary Stars and T’Kuvma’s martyrdom, I think it's very clear that had everyone on the Starfleet side been gifted clairvoyance, the best outcome would have been for Shenzou to be the only ship present when the Great Houses arrived to see who lit the beacon and assess the situation. Shenzou is at extreme risk but it can collect intelligence right up to the moment it needs to either fight or flight. 

An even more cautious approach would have been for Shenzou to withdraw to regroup with the fleet at a central mustering point, but with the risk that the coffin ship and its aspiring Great Khan cloak and vanish to threaten Federation colonies. 

The upsides here are that Shenzou is not sitting there facing down a foe that vastly outclasses her, its harder to start a shooting war if there’s no one around to shoot, and it buys time for cooler heads: the skeptical Great Houses are given no reason at all to respect T’Kuvma because he’s clearly an alarmist trying to seize moral authority based on a non-credible threat. 

The T’Kuvma curious could potentially be mollified by recognizing the legitimacy of the Klingon claim to the system, as represented by the artifact. If a key element in T’Kuvma’s argument for unification is that the Federation is a sneaky, assimilationist power that deconstructs and homogenizes culturally distinct societies, then respecting a Klingon heritage site might undermine that argument. 

Hawks are entitled to grouse about ceding territory based on dumping an invisible artifact there centuries ago and then not bothering to tell anyone, but you don’t have to like cultural relativism for it to potentially be a tool to get you out of a shooting war. This also means that the Federation has time to reassess its defensive posture and start making preparations in case this is one of those times where history decides to validate the other hawk objection: that appeasing a bully encourages them to make ever greater demands.

Because Starfleet’s response was just large enough to make for an interesting fight for the Klingons but not large enough to inflict heavy casualties, the outcome sealed the deal for the Houses that were open to T’Kuvma’s pitch: unite to conquer the Federation and potentially get cloaking technology for your trouble.

But wait! This assumes that the characters have clairvoyance! 

They’re clearly extremely ignorant about the subtleties of Klingon society and the power dynamics that have created conditions in which a proletarian rabble rouser and spiritual leader could arise and pick the right moment to gather the Great Houses, pitch them on unifying against the Federation, with the expectation that Starfleet is going to halfass its response: neither fully committing to deescalation nor exercising strategic prudence and pulling back its forces until it has sufficient force to match the Ship of the Dead and the assembled Great Houses, AND maybe get killed in the process.

Yes, yes, yes, but this entire scenario is why Starfleet practices deescalation in the first place. Burnham screwed up epically, not just in trying to mutiny, she read the situation wrong: a decapitation strike wouldn’t necessarily end the threat of a Great Khan if the Great Khan is actually a Messianic figure, something she only realizes after she’s had time to think things through and chat with Sarek in the brig. She even admits that her judgment was clouded by her desire to protect her ship and crew and, implicitly, the idea of nipping a Klingon crusade in the bud was an irrational, irresponsible rationalization of the instinct to destroy that ship because Georgiou wasn’t going to back down with civilians at risk.

Because ultimately for the “Vulcan Hello” to make any kind of sense, it can’t be just about defeating random Klingons, not just about shooting first. It's about demonstrating the force and the willingness to use it as a credible deterrent. Thus if the Great Houses arrive and see that T’Kuvma got himself blown to smithereens by a vastly inferior Starfleet ship, would they have sized up the situation and decide the Federation is full of mighty warriors or will they correctly ascertain that T’Kuvma was killed by treachery or his own stupidity?

The entire scenario of “The Vulcan Hello” seems to rest upon, at least superficially, the idea that the Klingons are relatively simple brutes who will be deterred by lethal force, whereas Starfleet standing policies take into account that hidden variables are often present in tense situations and prudence almost always favors trying to buy time to figure out what those hidden variables are. 

As Lorca says “context is for kings.”

There’s blame for Georgiou here too, but it's very muted. She put her ship and crew at extreme risk trying to talk the Klingons down, but she also had the secondary motive of recognizing that Shenzou was the first line of defense for nearby colonies that we can infer likely didn’t have defenses that were up to the task of dealing with a dreadnought that can appear and disappear at will. 

She made a choice and it wasn’t an unreasonable choice, it just wound up being the wrong choice. Starfleet should have ordered her to pull back and link up with the fleet outside the system when the Great Houses arrived, if not earlier. Prior to the arrival of the Great Houses, their rationale was likely the same as Georgiou’s: keep hailing, keep talking, and keep gathering intelligence, but once the Great Houses were in place Starfleet should have recognized that if things went sideways, they weren’t arriving with enough firepower to win that fight.

[cleabellanov]

Jet-Skiing through identity: a deep dive into Mobius M. Mobius (part 2) 🛥️

Even the kindest of hearts have a trigger point, a spot that can catch a bullet without bleeding; making it part of the heart's anatomy.

I'm only saying that because I associate Loki as Mobius's soft spot("I know you have a soft spot for broken things"), and Loki turning his back to that in s1e2 as the trigger point. Imagine you have that courage, to do something everyone around you thinks is wrong. Then, just as you were going to prove the opposite,our efforts turn to be in vain.

For Mobius's character, this means he has to turn around at 360, to where he came from; with inovative ideas not working, it all comes to accepting defeat.

He manages that excellently in front of Ravonna: caring more about reassuring her everything will work out rather than focusing on himself. Another example of how much Mobius cares about others, even when he should care more about himself.

Episode 4, season 1, is crucial for where Mobius's story is going.

We can see so many interesting things in his conversation with Loki, like the way he handles stress through amusement. Asif this emotion isn't worthy enough, but to be laughed at:

"You like her! Does she like you?"

After all, let's not forget Mobius was already (and even earlier than this episode) catching feelings for Loki. His own words put this straightforward: "Just kind of an asshole. And a bad friend". Notice how he doesn't use any word similr to "traitor". He still considers him a friend, albeit a bad one, after everything he's done. Mobius might do his best to hide it, but he's still forgiving deep down. And it's not even Loki's departure in time and space that matters the most to the analyst. It's his alliance with Sylvie, hinting once again at the jelaousy of his character I talked about in part 1. "It's ruining my reality right now!" in Mobius's words.

But when he is told by Loki that they're all variants, Mobius doesn't simply dissmiss the idea. He could, and should, given the position he is in. But the brightness of his mind, and that little flicker of hope he still has in his Loki makes the difference. After all, hope is what makes us believe: it's the desire of having something to believe in.

Watch his reaction when he is told all this:

He is masking it flawlessly in front of Loki and the hunters, but that raising hope makes him search: is the trickster out of tricks for once? What if, all this time, that feeling he had inside himself but hid away is actually a sign, gently whispering to him there is more he should know about? That is a bravery so different from live action, and battling with superheroes: the bravery of discovery. Loki telling the truth means Mobius living a lie - a scary thought of course, but not scary enough to stop him.

This all drives Mobius to finding out what actually happened with hunter C-20. And the rest is history.

There is a certain honour in telling Loki he was right from the beginning. This new approach, this insight Mobius now gains over everything give him not only a rush of adrenaline, but also the confidence he didn't allow himself before. Therefore, he wasn't just working half a measure. The limits that were set were not part of his perimeter, but of the TVA's. Now that he sees that, he can also break those limits.

He is also free to speak his mind. And Loki is so deserving of these words that this scene right here is one of the most precious in the entire series. Their wonderful dinamc certainnly gives extra points to that.

Now Mobius isn't just an analyst anymore. He is a rebel, betraying the only thing he believes in, the one institution that shaped his entire existence. This rebellion isn't just external, but internal as well. Ultimately, only one part of the internal conflict won, but the other still exist, like two sides of the same coin, spinning and spinning. But he still has the hope that he'll find something better on the other side, and doesn't stop just because it's a hard thing to do.

If it was easy, everyone would do it. (Loki in Thor The Dark World)

I wanted to write more but this is already getting too long (like damn I'm fangirling hard) so see you for part 3!

[asgoodeasgold]

I love the hunt scene in Adow. Beautifully shot. Sadly it didn't end well for the deer.

📷 A Discovery of Witches s1e2 my edit

[almalvo]

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY | S1E2 "Battle at the Binary Stars"

[I will react to each episode individually and in full, raw reception and then post as is unrevised here onto my tumblr for the full span of every and all NuTrek episodes and series that have been and will be released. If this falls under your field of interest - I welcome your company in joining me. Enjoy the ride.] -------

god this show looks so fucking juicy with all its colours and shapes and resolution … BURNHAM IS SAREK'S WARD??????? bro bro is she a sibling in upbringing with spock or something. everyons so fucking pretty ugh these sounds i really want this uniform LMAO THAT LOOK SARU GIVES BURNHAM AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA saru is so good looking UGHH THIS INTRO I CANT I CANTTTT LOOK AT IT ITS SO PRETTYYY i love the feeling DISCO gives me im so happy for star trek getting such a massive visual and all around production upgrade also i just realised since old-trek's Star Trek Enterprise series, we have been inching closer and closer to the one that started it all. Star Trek ENTERPRISE > DISCOVERY > STRANGE NEW WORLDS…

does this… mean we are…. just possibly……… heading into a reprisal of some kind of "Origins" production in the future non-AOS?

if so i know it will never be a replacement of what is irreplacable. but im actually EXCITED to see something like that. if even it were to be a bad project, it would still be such a tickling spectacle - an experience that reminds us of where we came from.

but also.. to see what came before to be such a modern topic to discuss and potentially (i fucking wish) revive the world with its gravity and vision - all eyes on Star Trek once again……… it would be so worth it. it would be. everything.

anyways back to the episode LMAO UGHHH look at the way all the united federation ships warp in among their brethren ughhhhh ughhhhhhh takes my breath awaayy i like klingon whats odd is it sounds so slow in this rendition man the amount of work it took to get this pronunciation right ughhhh everything looks so pretty in this literally movie quality for a TREK series

no but also one more thing - back to the idea about the future of modern trek, since the movie saga has fallen flat, if we head into a modern revival of TOS, featuring AOS cast as a different universe/mirrorverse or seomthing cameo in TV/STREAMING EPISODIC FORMAT would be just… JUST-

...

i am so curious as to how and why burnham and sarek are even existing together simultaneously ugh damn look at the damage on the ship the detail i love saru's eyes hearing this as the ship's computer voice is so odd to me because im so used to Majel's voice but hey its smooth what is happening also oh my god this mind meld scene is so pretty oh my god im so curious how Burnham and Spock's dynamic even IS THE FUCKKK?? what would that even BE??? i only know spock exists because that is one of the few spoilers ive seen of this show - i KNOW hes in DISCO. as well as pike but thats it. what purpose they serve and why? no idea. and how burnham becomes captain?? god im so curious iits so intersting to hear statements as familiar as "weapons disabled" being said in such a new setting. with such a new sound for somehting so classic. tractor beam WHO WHOS EUROPA? WHATS ON THAT SHIP WHOOO

the human and klingon transmission will never be in peace… until far into TOS's timeline.. man this is so INTERESTING. HEARING KLINGON TERRAN. I CANT LIE i miss their fabulous long locks of hair bro klingon ship is fucking knifing through this ship dude that is so hardcore but also devastating af oh my god this antimatter explosion looks so fucking pretty admiral is gone the chian of command shifts how does this go phillipa doenst become admiral does she? then burnham as captain i doubt its this easy nah its so weird to hear klingon so spaced t'kuvma is such a cool name ughhhh lok at all the WARPPPING SHIPSSSS hearing klingon accent is cool love how smart the ship is oh god burnham you MADLAD yo they goin hard the klingon attire is so victorian english inspired not too keen on that ahha ughhh saru is sooo NICE TO LOOK AT such nice features this ready room is very reminiscent of what is to become enterprise internal design i mean, of course. but i just cant help but hype over it all thats interesting, to have a human taught as vulcan. hmm a subtly different circumstance than that of spock. the visual aberration effect is working well in this series ahaha DISCO has a very…. odd feeling from since its first episode that continues into its second one - it doesnt feel super episodic at all? it feels all like a really long montage. the sets are so pretty whoa those armoured vests though? touch screen energising ughh the gold animation of the energising effect is lovely those klingons dropped so fast and easy from those phasers dude these are some of the sexiest phaser designs ive ever seen. the klingons are just dropping like nothing whoa burnham's yell when the klingon grabbed her was so not her XD it didnt sound like her oh wow we are actually seeing the short handheld klingon knife OH SHIT well i see that this is how phllipa is usurped by burnham.. BRO YOU JUST LEFT HER BODY THERE hmmm interesting the pacing of the first two episodes is very… fast

t'kuvma is dead already?? i think its this pale klingon that ive seen on the comic cover whoaaaa all these shuttle/escape pods leaving like baby toads off momma's back XD (if you know, you know.) its so montagey very consistently - i guess THIS is where we start the series as it is to be? i really like this chiaroscuro lighting hm. its over already huh idk if its me - but apart from the visually and audially beautiful presentation - it has an odd feeling to it i cant lie. i think it must be because of this 2-episode montage. i hope it is.

i guess ill find out.

[justfollowyourdreams]

A Discovery Of Witches Season 1 - Episode 2 Diana & Matthew 😍😍😍

[the-plural-of-cris-is-crises]

A Very Trekful 10 Days

February 21st:

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E1 "Remembrance"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E1a&1b "Encounter at Farpoint Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 21 - Dahj & Holo Tech

February 22nd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E2 "Maps and Legends"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E10 "Hide and Q"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: First Contact

New Release - Star Trek: Picard "No Man's Land" Audio Story

PicardPositivity Day 22 - Laris & No Man's Land

February 23rd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E3 "The End is the Beginning"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E16 "Q Who" / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E13 "Deja Q"

PicardPositivity Day 23 - Sutra & Chateau Picard

February 24th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E4 "Absolute Candor"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E20 "Qpid"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S5E15&16 "Dark Frontier Parts 1 & 2"

New Episode - Star Trek: Discovery, S4E10

PicardPositivity Day 24 - Riker & Zhat Vash

February 25th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E5 "Stardust City Rag"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E6 "True Q" / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1E7 "Q-Less"

2024 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S3E11&12 "Past Tense Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 25 - Enoch & Behind the Scenes

February 26th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E6 "The Impossible Box"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E15 "Tapestry"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S6E26 & S7E1 "Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 26 - Agnes & Crew

February 27th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E7 "Nepenthe"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S7E25&26 "All Good Things Parts 1 & 2" / Star Trek: Voyager, S2E18 "Death Wish"

PicardPositivity Day 27 - Bruce Maddox & The Artifact

February 28th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E8 "Broken Pieces"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S3E11 "The Q and the Grey"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S7E25&26 "Endgame Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 28 - Data & Starships

March 1st

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E9 "Et in Arcadia Ego Part 1"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S7E19 "Q2"

PicardPositivity Day 29 - Ian & Stardust City

March 2nd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E10 "Et in Arcadia Ego Part 2"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Lower Decks, S1E8 "Veritas"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Lower Decks, S2E8 "I, Excretus"

PicardPositivity Day 30 - Picard & Season 2

March 3rd

New Episode - Star Trek: Discovery, S4E11

Premiere - Star Trek: Picard, S2E1

[all-the-trek]

Star Trek: Discovery S1E2 "Battle at the Binary Stars" (2256)

Poor lil Federation starship...

Burnham gets to fly in space like Archer... weeeeeeee!

I do like that it's two badass women commanding this ship and now taking on the Klingons...

[rachelpizzolato]

Happy Easter from the cast and crew of Mythbusters Jr!!! For all you pet ❤️s out there, check out S1E2 of Mythbusters Jr on YouTube!! https://youtu.be/QlQj-XW8Vvc 🦮 🐇 🦮 🐇 🦮 @discovery @sciencechannel @mythbusters #MythbustersJr #science #funforall #letshavesomefun #experiment @jesselawlessss @therealadamsavage @tech_nic_allie #scienceexperiments #scienceisfun #scientific @youtube @skechers @freepeople #dog #doglovers @laspca #spca #animallover #dogloversofinstagram #instadogfeature #lovedogs #instapup #puppy #instapets #petsofinstagram #petloversofinstagram #petfriendly (at 32Ten Studios) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-44j40DYad/?igshid=akc0gzw7c7ss

[biblioflyer]

Discovery Rewatch 3 Episode Check In: Synthesizing Humble Pie

3 Episode Check In

The first three episodes feel like they were originally intended to be one cinematic length piece, much like the episodes that establish the other series. Three episodes gets us the key characters, the premise, and enough worldbuilding to give us a feel for the ways in which this a continuation of “classic” Star Trek and the ways in which it is a departure.

I shared some of my pre-rewatch thoughts about the show here. TL/DR: I remembered it worse.

Some deeper thoughts and reactions specifically to the character of Michael Burnham and what I think a too casual reading of the show misses.

What I liked:

Burnham: I like the idea of a character that is trying to get out from under the shadow of their worst mistake, who is actually even more committed to Starfleet and its values as a consequence of going against them and it going horribly, horribly wrong. I have a conspiracy theory that a lot of people who make some of the less cringe critiques of the character were entirely put off by the deep dive into the Sarek family drama and the “messianic” Red Angel predestination paradox, and then never really updated their opinions. S1 Burnham appears to be firmly within the Bell Curve of Starfleet uber competency.

The Burnham of this first arc is not a bad person, she means well, but she’s all Vulcan fixation on outcomes without the grounding in Vulcan ethics exemplified by the likes of Spock. Whether it's fair to blame this exclusively on Sarek or if it's a consequence of being immersed in a retconned Vulcan society that has suppressed even empathy in favor of outcomes focused logic, remains to be seen. 

I do wonder how much of the early Discovery hate comes from having a main character who is, well, kind of an asshole, and not in a charming way, and it kind of seems like the main reason she hasn’t been bounced for her nonstop microaggressions is a mix of authentic competency and patronage. Which is not very Starfleet. It's also not not Starfleet. Starfleet loves its third, fourth, and fifth chances. Except for mutinies and starting holy wars.

It was a BIG swing to launch the first new series in over a decade with a flawed character trying to be a better person in the middle of a desperate war doing everything it can to make her an even worse person than the one who nerve pinched her captain and tried to gaslight her crew into assassination. And I’m surprising myself with how much I’m actually more “here for that” than I was back in 2017.

Lorca: I forgot what a brilliant snake he is. Excellent actor, excellent writing. He plays the crew like a well tuned instrument: exploiting their anxieties, their vanities, and their principles. It's not an original thought but we are making a mistake if, when rolling our eyes at the high touch, high levels of validation and reassurance that defines Burnham’s command style and the intra-crew dynamics of later seasons, we don’t factor in Lorca’s gaslighting and the atrocities the Discovery crew were accessories to, if not directly responsible for, under his command.

Saru: Doug Jones is a treasure. In retrospect, they should have tested the redesigned Klingon costumes on him first so that he could figure out how to move and emote, and then mentor the Klingon performers. This is the character to pay attention to if you’re at risk of drinking the “Burnham is always right” koolaide that the fiercest critics of the show are constantly imbibing. He’s the conscience that Burnham, whether through trauma or social programming, has suppressed at this point in the series. He’s the flight to her fight and if you think he’s excessively timid, okay fair. 

But so far? He may not win any medals for valor, but if everyone had followed his advice to this point, there’d be no Klingon War to test just how much the Federation is willing to sacrifice for its principles. Saru is what makes this feel like classic Star Trek. Multiple characters are presenting different moral arguments rooted in culture, experience, and how these influence their perception of a situation and while it's tempting to throw our lot in with the main character, I don’t think we’re supposed to take Burnham uncritically. Which feels like a departure for Star Trek, but then its not like Jean luc Picard didn’t have to be talked into not committing genocide by inaction repeatedly.

Georgiou: Philippa Georgiou is frankly an ideal Starfleet Captain and mentor figure. It's a pity she’s killed off for pathos and for contrast to the sadistic Empress. She switches between nurturing and tough as nails as the situation calls for it. There’s echoes of the Kirk - Spock dynamic in her first scene with Burnham where she’s gently poking at Burnham’s “always on” business like demeanor but no question that she’s the Captain. The mix of rage and despair in her eyes and demeanor when she staggers out of the ready room, phaser drawn to confront Burnham is just phenomenal.

Affirmations of Starfleet values: I’ll unpack this in greater detail, but the first three episodes are actually way more of a validation of traditional “Trek” values and themes than I remembered. Characters geeking out over sciency stuff, stern lectures about moral decency. All the stuff that shaped my childhood. The instances where a character behaves in a very “not-Starfleet” way have absolutely cataclysmic consequences.

USS Shenzou: I really like the Walker-class. Most of the rest of the fleet that appears at the Battle of the Binary Stars feels rather generic and out of place temporally, much more TMP era. Whereas Shenzou for whatever reason is a ship that feels like it could be a direct predecessor to the much more streamlined Constitution-class generation but is still very “industrial.”

USS Discovery: the original, pre-32nd refit configuration was not something I originally liked all that much but it grew on me over the course of the first three seasons. I never warmed up to the “A” refit. I really didn’t realize how much I had actually come to like the stock Crossfield-class until the “A” refit was reversed.

Space is very pretty: Except it’s not, not really. But that’s okay. I like to think that in some way Discovery is a love letter to Babylon 5 which I feel is actually the progenitor of the modern trend to use brilliant nebulae and other stellar phenomena as window dressing for space scenes.

What I didn’t like:

Prison labor: 

I can headcanon this as the Federation offering prisoners a way to demonstrate good behavior and be of service in exchange for leniency, but at least one of the prisoners is an unapologetic murderer and it's clear that dilithium mining has a better than zero chance of being a death sentence. 

My complaint here is not that I think the murderer is worthy of sympathy: my stance on exercising a high threshold of human dignity and sanctity of life is that this exercise is for the one doing the exercise, not the recipient. The recipient’s degree of merit or their capacity for redemption is not relevant to whether or not affording them decency is a good thing, the affordance of decency is moral exercise in the same way pushups are exercise for the physical heart. 

Moral allowances for the mistreatment of people outside the social contract IS a slippery slope and labeling it a fallacy is an attempt to refute reality. We are not always objective when it comes to correctly identifying who is unworthy of a minimum standard of treatment and the greater the harm we permit ourselves when we think someone is in breach of the social contract, the less likely we can undo that harm in the event we are mistaken or the individual turns out to be able to break free from the patterns and instincts that make them a menace.

The affordance of decency should not be confused with failing to take all reasonable measures short of execution to prevent a murderer from harming other people. Which in this instance, I think Starfleet failed to do. The attack on Burnham in the mess hall is a direct result of using convict labor.

T’Kuvma’s “Xanatos Gambit”

To be blunt, T’Kuvma is a plot device of a character. He exists primarily to be martyred and thus incite the war between the Federation and the Klingons. His social standing among the Klingons is highly ambiguous: it's clear some of the leaders of the Great Houses respect him or at least are willing to pretend to respect him to placate any followers of T’Kuvma’s doctrines or gain access to his cloaking tech. Yet Kol of House Kor is clearly dismissive of him and what we get of T’Kuvma’s backstory seems to imply he’s the head of a formerly great Great House that was forced to recruit from the outcasts of Klingon society. 

We can probably infer that he’s a sort of messianic, proletarian figure. Yet the narrative only provides a scattering of clues as to just who he is in Klingon society and why anyone cares because T’Kuvma ultimately isn’t the real main villain, he’s a plot device whose job is to spark a war and then die.

The Klingon re-design but not because “muh canon”

I am not a canon reactionary. I do not feel intense emotional pain when someone tinkers with the design of a ship, character, uniforms, technology etc. I don’t even get all that bent out of shape when narrative continuity is overhauled: pushing back the date of the Eugenics Wars, altering the death toll of World War 3, giving Spock first one then two siblings he won’t talk about, making the Soongs a dynasty of mad scientists etc. 

None of these are unforgivable sins and some of these make good sense in order to keep Star Trek firmly rooted in the future rather than inventing an alternate history. Others, like the invention of Burnham or the Soong business, are flights of fancy and my reaction is more rooted in whether these “retcons” are interesting.

So with that out of the way: the Klingon redesign is awful. Not because “muh canon” but because the redesign is awful. The armor, sets, and ship designs are all incredibly abstract and busy to an extreme. The end result is so much sensory information to take in that it acts a lot like digital camouflage: disrupting the visibility of everything. Nothing can be appreciated on its own because everything is overstimulating.

Furthermore, the Klingon actors struggle to emote, let alone move in the heavy makeup and costumes. The fight choreography between T’Kuvma and Georgiou is comically sad. T’Kuvma lumbers like Frankenstein and while he sells the idea of there being enormous power behind his blows, there’s no precision. Mohammed Ali he ain’t. Absent directorial fiat that Georgiou had to die from stabbing for some reason, I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t just run away and go recover her phaser or a disruptor.

While Strange New Worlds almost certainly was bowing to the reactionary fervor of the fandom when it quietly re-retconned the appearance of Klingons, I have to believe that there was a stable of extras routinely cast as Klingons and fight choreographers who were on their knees begging for the return of lumpy forehead aliens.

The case for reconsidering shows

My memory was just flat out wrong in a lot of places. Burnham is more nuanced. The Federation is not particularly edgy. A lot of the problematic stuff that happens has an appropriate context that gets lost in the second or third or fourth iteration of flattening, retelling, and whining. Even some of the “dumb” stuff also has context that gets lost in the process of being turned into a meme. 

Was Starfleet holding the idiot ball pretty much from start to finish in the first three episodes? Yes, absolutely. But it’s not as if the characters don’t provide vaguely plausible reasons for their behaviors. Burnham is convinced that this is a unique threat that requires a very non-Starfleet solution. Georgiou is not fully persuaded that diplomacy is actually going to work but she is conflicted between her duty to her crew and her duty to innocent people within rapid striking range of the very large ship that can turn invisible. So she chooses to put the crew at risk in order to keep tabs on that beast while hoping that speechifying will work.

Is there really bad stuff that is going to make me kind of angry looming? Also yes. But I'm intrigued to reckon with it and see if I still feel its as egregious as I recall or if there's nuance to be found, and if there isn't nuance to reconcile it with my preferred characterization of the Federation, then do the icky things that happen make sense from the standpoint of a moral parable about overcoming our darker impulses?

[daemonsdomain]

undefined

TV Show Review A Discovery of Witches: Season 1, Episode 2

We travel further into small-screen universe and meet new characters: Juliette, Hamish, Domenico & Gerbert! We work thru this ep's events & hash out our thoughts as dilemmas pop up!

Listen and see show notes here: http://go.DaemonsDiscuss.com/S1E2

[asgoodeasgold]

"Checkmate. There is more to the game than protecting your queen".

I have never been quite sure what that meant (sorry, dense 🤷🏻‍♀️) but I love how realisation slowly dawns (that Diana is in danger? that he needs to get the book before others get hold of it? that he loves her?) on Matthew Clairmont's face as he plays chess with Hamish and thinks things through. Matthew Goode's micro expressions are always a delight to watch. As for those eyes, just hypnotic.

📷 Sky A Discovery of Witches s1e2 my edit

[elizgeli]

New DuckTales S1E2 - Day Trip of Doom

Webby is annihilating the boys in a shooting game--although Beakley is bewildered by all the new mansion inhabitants, Scrooge waves it off....until he sees Donald has totally Donalded his washroom. He sets one house rule: stay out of his rooms, and then leaves the rest to Beakley. Donald won’t defer to her, so the kids go outside to avoid hearing the argument. 

The boys start to realize that Webby doesn’t understand social cues, but they chalk it up to her being cooped up in the mansion all these years. They quickly figure out it’s her first time on a bus as she quickly does everything you’re not supposed to do on a bus. Cameo: Roxanne from Goofy Movie, AGAIN. Will she be in every episode? On the wall of the alley they get kicked out to it says “Post No Bills” with a picture of a duck...get it?! BILLS?! 

The kids arrive at Funso’s Fun Zone (a pirate-y Discovery Zone-type place) and Louie schmoozes all the female teen employees for free stuff, then encourages Webby to try. Of course she epic-ally fails because teen girls don’t want little girls to flirt with them. She then goes to play a guitar-hero-esque game with Dewey and accidentally resets it and erases all his high scores. This is worse than what happened to Dustin on Stranger Things. Webby’s penchant for paranoia and self-defense eventually lead to destruction of large portions of Funso’s and the whole group is banned forever! 

Outside they are kidnapped by the Beagle Boys and then we meet Ma Beagle for the first time. She is voiced by CHARACTER ACTRESS MARGO MARTINDALE! Which gets me thinking about how incredible A Bojack X DuckTales crossover would be. I think I would actually die. Oh btw this whole time the B plot was Donald Donalding everything up and pissing off Beakley. 

Webby escapes the ropes and there’s a heartfelt moment about how she is really trying to be normal--but the boys decide to accept her as she is! *sniff sniff.* The kids steal one of the beagles and decide to do a ransom within a ransom...it’s a ransomception! Beakley and Donald arrive to save the kids as Ma Beagle sneaks away to find her Big Time. They eventually capture her in the bottomless ball pit. All ball pits are terrifying germ cauldrons, so IMO it’s a fate worse than death. 

Donald and Beakley decide to make peace as the boys learn to accept that Webby is a violent sociopath that derives pleasure from their pain. THE END. 

I need more of Scrooge in these episodes! 

[fagarak]

Hello and welcome to Cardassianassassin Liveblogs Discovery S1E2

:D

[justfollowyourdreams]

A Discovery Of Witches Season 1  Episode 2 Matthew Clairmont

[dykals]

me watching s1e2 of discovery

me: yea georgiou has death flags i bet she’s gonna die at some point

literally 3 seconds later: georgiou dies